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Thursday, June 1, 2017

How to Do ShoreIndie

We're just a couple of days away: ShoreIndie Contest submissions open this weekend! For those of you who haven't participated in a contest like this before, we wanted to offer some tips on how to get the most out of it.

Read the submission guidelines carefully, and try to have all your materials prepped and ready to go before the submission window opens at 9am ET on Saturday, June 3rd so that you can submit as early as possible. Why? Each editor can only accept 100 submissions, and in past contests, some of the editors have capped out before the submission period closed. The earlier you submit, the better your chances at getting your submission in front of your top choices for editor.

In addition to choosing 3 editors to submit to, remember to pick a 4th, alternate editor. This editor will only see your submission if one of your top 3 choices is already capped when your submission is processed.

After you submit, come back to the #ShoreIndie hashtag on Twitter! The editors will be hanging out all weekend, and we want to meet you, hear about what you're submitting, and play WIP games in between reading submissions. This is also a great opportunity to meet other authors and generally share your nervous excitement about having taken the plunge into ShoreIndie waters.

Another reason to hang out on the #ShoreIndie hashtag: editors will start tweeting anonymous feedback about their submissions under the #ShoreIndie & #SIsubs hashtags as early as Saturday! #SIsubs will be very similar to #10queries tweets: brief feedback about submissions (no identifying information), intended to be helpful to all authors. It's like a sneak preview into a reader's experience of the blurb and first five pages that will give you some ideas about strengths and opportunities for improvement. In similar contests, authors have raved about how much they learn by reading these tweets. Each editor is reading and tweeting according to their own schedule, so you'll need to check in on the hashtags from time to time to see when the editors you subbed to intend to tweet their #SIsubs.

Watch the Twitter feeds of your chosen editors during selection week (June 3-10) to find out what additional materials they may request to help them make their decisions (e.g. 2-page synopsis, a partial manuscript). They'll tweet about their processes to keep you updated, including when they've made their final decisions.

Join us on the #ShoreIndie hashtag for the Author-Editor pairing announcements at 3pm ET on Sunday, June 11th to find out who the Round 1 winners are!

Stayed tuned to the #ShoreIndie hashtag during the editing round (June 12-July 29) for #AskAuthor chats with our Featured Authors and Judges (great opportunities to learn more about how other indie authors are reaching readers), giveaways, and mini-workshops with some of the ShoreIndie editors. We'll also be posting the original blurbs and first five pages of the Round 1 winners on this website the week of June 12th so you can see what grabbed our attention, and their revised blurb and pages will be posted the week of July 7th.

Last but not least, come back to the #ShoreIndie hashtag for the announcements of the 2017 ShoreIndie Grand Prize Winner & Runner Up at noon ET on Monday, August 14th. TWITTER PAR-TAY!

We've put a ton of work into this, and we're SUPER excited not only to
see your submissions but also for all the related activities and events. We hope that this contest is a fun and rich learning experience for everyone!